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By GINO BARDI

Crisis warning to union leaders

of hard struggles, says WFTU |

MILAN.

A TENDED by delegates from 70 countries repre-
Senting an estimated 76 million organized workers,
the secong congress of the World Federation of Trade
nions opened in Milan’s Palazzo de l’Arte on June 28

under twin slogans: “For the international unity of the

Workers” ang “Defend stable, lasting peace among the
Peoples,”

Giuseppe di Vittorio, WFTU president and general
“ecretary of the Italian General Federation of Labor,
Made the inaugural address. The WFTU, Di Vittorio
declared, has been “hardened in the heat of the work-
a. Struggles throughout the world, while those who
Rave forgotten the great hopes opened by the inter-
‘Rational Victory over fascism vainly attempt to weaken

the and turn back the wheels of victory.”

‘ 10-man_ presiding body was then elected, consisting
cot Sadaoui of Tunisia, representing African trade
ens: Vicente Lombardo Toledano of the Latin Amer-
Can Federation of Labor (CTAL); Alain de Leap of
e French General Federation of Labor (CGT); M.
Huunonen, Finland; M. Brokzyl, Poland; Cipro Kolsky,
z hoslovakia; M. Wickremasinghe, India; Vassili Kuz-
Ay, USSR; Di Vittorio, Italy, and an unnamed Chin-
e delegate. (The Chinese delegation was held up in
€choslovakia by non-granting of an Italian visa.)

ag oPorting on the
the orth activity of
foundin U since the
j Beneral” congress,
Louis .. Secretary
ineg Saillant exam-
Made © pledges
gress. at that con-
Work to organize

“ers, to fight fas-
to struggle
ar,

achieved

in Africa
ang
he Latin

America,

giv-

Tegime the Franco

; in’ s pain,
®Bainst the anti-labor
regime in

4 and inst
Petts to. imnone
thet ™ethods on
€ver Workers where.

Eve
leq y had occur-

‘ the . ;

®gainst Struggle
: war,

Saiq the Saillant

that « had above all fought, the false idea

,. var is inevitable” and had called on the workers
Cipate in the world wide peace movement. “Con-
atte activity for a just and lasting peace,” Saillant

» “eo chief reason for
istenes » Constitutes the WEFTU's

LOUIS SAILLANT
“Constant activity for a just
and lasting peace constitutes
the WETU’s chief reason for
existence.”

econ Viewing the WFTU's activity in the social ane
ba aa flelds and its support of progressive policies
&cono °n expansion of internal markets and lenranee
Sery, mic planning in the United Nations, Saillant ob-

ne that the WFTU must act more positively in the

deg, :
ai °f democratic rights and world labor's mutual
e Sinst reaction.

aan his references to withdrawal of the CIO and the

WETU, Sail
lant Tf@des Union Congress from the s of “bad

.. 8cuseg th organization.
faith» oa the leaders of bo vee
ane Attacks on the WFTU come from eats
its to international capitalism,” he charged,
su selves and
PPort co the workers them :
fr mes from e ; is in power.’
Countries where the working class is
. ' 4 m-
Mm Saillant denied contentions that the Fak aah
“dominated,” saying its objectives Te
88 when they were laid down @

t the founding

fs

congress. The WFTU was proud to have Soviet labor
among its members, he said, “because Soviet trade
unions are the strongest and most advanced in the
world.”

Saillant ridiculed the idea that the WFTU could be
isolated. At the very moment a Belgian leader arbit-
rarily withdrew his country’s 500,000 workers from the
organization, he said, a million workers in Shanghai
became ready to enter. Concluding his speech, Saillant
declared that “the growing economic crisis in various
capitalist countries is a warning that trade union lead-
ers must prepare to face ever harder struggles.”

.

The first day of the congress closed with a resolu-

tion condemning General Douglas MacArthur, chief of. -

(U.S. occupation forces in Japan, for refusing to permit
Japanese union delegates to attend the parley.

In the week before the Opening of the congress,
the WFTU sponsored conferences which founded three
international trade departments—for metal workers at
Turin, Italy; for textile workers at Lyon, France, and

for shoe, leather and fur workers at Gottwaldov,
Czechoslovakia,
e

GENEVA.

IGHT-WING union officials from 32 countries, claim-
ing to represent 43 million unionists, voted to set

up a world anti-Communist labor federation at a con-

ference here on June 26. The actual setting up of the
new federation was scheduled for November this year
somewhere in western Europe.

Main participants in the conference were the AFL,
which has not belonged to any international labor group
in recent years, and the CIO and British Trades Union
Congress, which withdrew from the World Federation
of Trade Unions earlier this year. There were also a

number of smaller labor groups which recently seceded .

from the WFTU, as well as minority delegations from
Italy, France, China and other countries whose main
labor federations continue as WFTU members.

The AFL and CIO, which had previously battled
each other for the exclusive right to represent U.S. labor
_ internationally, worked together at Geneva. They made
a frank effort, remarked by all observers, to push the
British Trades Union Congress down a peg from its
traditional leadership of right-wing labor trends in Eur-
ope. This was reflected in the election of a Belgian,
J. Finet, as chairman of the conference while British

union leader Vincent Tewson, a former WFTU presi-
dent, was named secretary.

Because many of the delegates present were So
closely identified with the diplomacy of their respective
countries, a numberof national and political conflicts

' manifested themselves at the opening meeting.

CIO delegate James B. Carey stated that “Commun-
ist-dominated trade unions will find no welcome here,
thus making it plain that applicants for membership
would face scrutiny of both their elected officers and
policies. .

Socialist-led unions objected strongly to the admis-
sion of Catholic union federations, which exist in a
number of countries.

| Representatives of two Argentine groups, one close.

it, nearly
the Peron government and one opposed to it,

one to blows on the conference floor. The Peron
group later walked out of the conference.

: d
The delegate from Lebanon, an Arab state, oppose
the admission of an Israeli labor delegate who was

supported by the CIO and finally seated. :

, A delegate from the rump government-dominated

front in what remains of Chiang Kai-shek’s China
Aa against the formation of a new federation be-
cause he felt insufficient representation was being given

to Asia.

‘he airing of bitter contests for the leadership of
ean ianns proms the United Nations was foreshadow-
ed in a conference decision to seek consultative UN
status as soon as the new federation is formed. The
WFTU, with 68 national members representing an esti-
mated 0 million unionists, already holds such status.

.

‘

LABOR FOCUS By J. B. SALSBERG

Labor harmed by
CCF-CCL policy

The results of the federal elections are clear enough
to enable leaders and rank-and-filers of the trade un-
ions to draw conclusions about the role of organized
labor in the political life of the country.

The election results should also cause al] sincere
socialists in the CCF to critically examine some of the

major policies of the CCF and the recent role of their
main leadership.

From the viewpoint of organized workers, the out-
standing lesson is that east of Manitoba, where the bulk
of the industrial workers of this country are to ‘be
found, only two CCFers were elected and only one of
them comes from an industria] riding. All other indus-
trial areas, including those where organized workers
constitute the bulk of the. population, have elected non-
labor representatives to the House of Commons.

Another extremely important lesson of the election
is that constituencies where the right-wing CCF-led
unions are decisive, not only elected old-line party can-
didates, but that the CCF candidates trailed a poor
third. This was so in vita] areas where the Conroy-
Millard type of CCL political action committees ran the
election campaigns. In such industrial centers as Wind-
sor, Hamilton, Kitchener, Cornwall, Sault Ste. Marie
and in the industrial and unionized areas of Toronto,
Montreal, Nova Scotia, the right-wing CCF candidates
trailed behind the other two parties.

Of course large numbers of labor and progressive-
minded people generally voted Liberal for fear of the
Drew-Duplessis combination but that is by no means
the full explanation for the astounding CCF defeat and
for the failure to elect labor representatives from even
the most industrialized and highly organized constit-

uencies. It would seem evident that the right-wing CCF

policies and actions had much to do with the results.
@

The right-wing CCF leadership obliterated all lines
of demarcation between the CCF and the Tories and
Liberals on the most profound of all issues—foreign
policy. When the CCF went along with Drew and St.
Laurent on the Yankee imperialist Marshal] plan and
joined hands with the Tories and Liberals on the

Atlantic war pact, it surrendered to big business policy
and also removed one of the main reasons why workers
should not vote for the old-line parties.

The. right-wing CCF-CCL leadership further arrest-
ed the swing away from the old-line parties when it
capitulated to reaction and launched its violent red-

baiting and divisive campaigns within the ranks of
labor. F

The CCF-CCL line of recklessly splitting trade
unionist which are led by independent-thinking leaders
further disarmed vital sections of organized labor on
the electoral front. Conroy’s sabotage of |the seamen’s
strike, Millard’s open anti-strike action’ against the
seamen in Sydney, N.S. and Coldwell’s anti-csu
speeches whch only served as a cover for the most
despicable union-busting action of the Liberal govern-
ment, alienated thousands of industrial workers and
deadened enthusasm in many vital constituencies being
contested by CCF candidates.

Last, but not least, it should now be apparent to
all that decisions of machine majorities at CCL conven-
tions do not necessarily express the true sentiments of

. the CCL rank-and-file. When the Conroy-Millard ma-

chine majority “endorses the CCF as the political arm
of labor” and denies the trade unions the most elem-
entary rights to choose the CCF candidates or to have
a decisive voice in the formulation of CCF _ policies,
such mechanical decisions neither win the rank-and-file
nor do they deliver the votes. :

The fact is that neither Joe: Mackenzie of the rubber
union nor Sam Baron of the textile union, who enthus-
iastically support the machine’s political action policy,
were able to win their own members in Kitchener or
Cornwall for the CCF, even though no other labor
candidate was in the field. The Liberals and Tories
won the bulk of the support in those as in other indust-
rial towns. / Cotterill’s national CCL-PAC operated from
above and was generally divorced from the rank-and-
file of the CCL unions in most industrial ridings.

The CCL decision to get one dollar per member for
the CCF-CCL PAC remained on paper. What the ma-
chine could do, and did, was to get bulk contributions
from the union treasuries, but that was the action of
a handful of people in executive positions and in no
way reflected the sentiments of the masses below.

The election results, far from vindicating the reac-—

tionary, red-baiting, union-splitting and political-dom-

inating policies of the CCF in the trade union move-
ment, show, instead, how harmful these policies really
are. The election results call for a very frank and
thorough re-examination of the major policies of the
CCF and of the political action policies of the CCL. The
results also demand a complete re-evaluation of the
position and the role of the Trades and Labor Congress
in the political life of the country.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 8, 149 — PAGE 9